Diversity and Affirmative Action: A New Philosophy
and Model for College Admissions

By Charles H. Smith

Most
of us probably have a pretty good intuitive feel for what the word "diversity"
means: loosely, it is about "having variety" or "multiformity," or defining
"a state of many internal differences." Beyond such simple definitions,
the term has been applied in many ways: both as a generality, and to portray
certain more specific aspects of the natural and social world. Here I
should like to take a quick look at one these portrayals--of the relation
of diversity to an engaged society--and attempt to identify a weakness
in our current approach to education whose correction might be of some
value in reaching our social goals.

Diversity
represents a fundamental state of being, of existence. Two basic things
that can be said of any such state of being are: (1) that it has reached
its present state through some manner of historical process/genesis, and
(2) that in active operation it fits into some sort of greater environment.
If our collective experience and logic are any guides, it is invariably
the case that a historical process of development involves an internal
storage of information that ultimately serves persistence within that
greater environment. Thus it is, for example, that our genetic code, the
product of millions of years of selective assimilation, serves us as biological
entities struggling to survive under basic environmental constraints of
temperature, pressure, and other ambient variables.

Many
studies focus on only one of these two fundamental perspectives. Fields
such as history and paleontology tend to emphasize the first matter, whereas
ecology and economics look more toward the second. In biology both elements
of study are pursued, with attention to the matter of diversity recently
becoming so focussed that a new compound word has been invented to draw
attention to it: "biodiversity." Generally, the object of discussion is
some apparently discrete form such as an individual, a species, or a population.
But we can also legitimately look at the stage upon which such actors
play their roles--that is, at the ecological conditions that promote the
development of individual "things." Let us consider a couple of examples.

The
tropical rainforest regions of the world, with their luxurious growth
of vegetation and seemingly endless variety of animal forms (especially
insects), are often viewed as evolution's most productive theaters. But
this impression is actually an incomplete one, confusing mere biomass
tonnage and speciosity with the overall process leading to the same. Yes,
it is true that in terms both of species diversity and total standing
biomass, the tropical rainforests rank first among the world's ecosystem
types. Note, however, that this reality tells us only that these areas
represent the greatest storehouses of genetic diversity; to see
the whole evolutionary picture some additional factors must be
taken into account.

The
Achilles heel of the rainforest as a productive system lies in the fact
that too much rain falls there for its own good. Tropical soils are constantly
being inundated and they rapidly deplete, whenever exposed, through erosion
and/or a general process of chemical out-leaching of nutrients. The ecosystem's
characteristic adaptation to this stress has been to host a community
structure in which there is rapid, opportunistic growth such that the
vast majority of the nutrients available to the system are tied up in
the living matter itself (and its massive dead woody support structure)
at any given time. The biogeochemical cycling process sustaining the ecosystem--that
is, nutrient turnover vital to the all-important process of primary productivity
of plant matter through photosynthesis--is actually rather inefficient
there. Relatively little of the system's total nutrient base is available
at any given time to sustain primary productivity and the rapid decay
process that aids in recycling vital resources to return use.

By
contrast, the mid-latitude grassland ecosystem is much more productive.
Relatively little of the system's nutrients is lost to leaching, or to
long periods of unavailability while tied up in nonproductive superstructure.
Instead, each year a good portion of the available nutrients in the soil
are assimilated by growing, photosynthesizing, vegetation, which is then
either consumed by animals or itself dies at the end of the year. The
process of decay ultimately releases the nutrients tied up in dead matter
back to the soil, and to availability again in a year or two. Primary
productivity of plant matter is actually greater in this environment,
as is the amount of animal biomass it can sustain. We of course know this
well: agriculturally, such regions are known as the "breadbaskets" of
the world for their productive capabilities, and historically have sustained
great herds of herbivore giants.

This
contrasting state of affairs is also reflected in differences in the secondary
characteristics of the biodiversity in each ecosystem. Species populations
that inhabit the tropical rainforests tend to be made up of fewer individual
organisms, and exhibit smaller distribution ranges. This reflects the
greater stability levels there, and the ability of small species populations
to develop niche associations which link them very closely to other populations.
Species from the grassland regions, which are environmentally less stable,
tend to be more opportunistic in their habitat utilization, and exhibit
physiological adaptations more attuned to the various inclemencies of
a changeable climate and varying habitat. Highly specialized adaptation
to time and place is more the order in the tropics, where, for example,
a fantastic array of protective body colors and shapes have evolved in
response to the opportunities provided by close and constant proximity
to a large number of other species.

And,
finally, there are important differences between the overall supra-species
level constitutions of each ecosystem. Within the tropics not only is
speciosity higher, but so too is the diversity of the higher taxonomic
groups such as families and orders. And, importantly, not only are there
more of the latter, but the ones that are there tend to be more primitive
(in the biological sense, simply meaning "of earlier derivation"). It
is to the tropical regions of the world that one should go to have the
best chance of encountering so-called "living fossils"; such forms are,
again, indicative of the relatively dominating repository character of
such areas.

Note,
then, that the differing characteristics of productivity between rainforest
and grassland areas are not due to any one simple characteristic of the
stability or harshness of the two ecosystems. The climate of grassland
regions is undoubtedly more harsh and fluctuating than is that of the
tropics, but in the matter of primary productivity the stability of the
ecosystem is not the primary consideration. To build a productive ecosystem
in a biological sense--that is, to optimally promote photosynthesis and
all that follows--one must have a biogeochemical cycling process that
rapidly turns over a great percentage of nutrients, and an array of species
in the community that is attuned to assimilating and using them, and not
merely to binding and highly specialized interactions with other species.
In the latter case we are speaking primarily of the production of diversity
through mere complexification; in the former, a constant renewal of function
that serves diversification of ecological association as well.

There
is an important point to be gathered from this digression into the evolutionary
ecology of biodiversity, and it is one which biologists themselves have
been slow to perceive. This is, again, that there is a big difference--both
epigenetically and in terms of directly observable structure--between
the evolutionary function of an ecological setting that promotes the storage
of diversity, and one that promotes its constant renewal and locational
re-assignment and integration.

While
resisting the temptation to draw parallels that are too literal, let us
now take a broad look at some not dissimilar considerations on the meaning
of diversity within the university setting.

For
hundreds of years now the most recognizable mission of institutions of
higher learning has lain in their roles as bastions of expertise and knowledge.
Two familiar and dominating symbols of this role have managed to maintain
themselves: the teaching faculties of such institutions, and the massive
"halls of ivory" physical plant of the typical college campus (perhaps
exemplified par excellence by the institution's library, repository
of what is, literally, the written record of the history of civilization).
In the face of these potent icons the goal of the education process itself--"productivity,"
not only in a multi-faceted intellectual sense but in a sense of societal
improvement--has never quite received the spotlight it deserves. Students
were indeed "educated," but without a unified view as to just what that
education was supposed to accomplish: either for the students themselves,
or for society in general. At worst knowledge became a unidimensional
tool: that which one could use to assimilate money; less negatively, the
focus was mostly on accumulating knowledge, more than it was using it
unselfishly.

Importantly,
in recent years a consensus has slowly emerged that is serving to replace
the latter order. It is now proposed that the main function of the university
should be to produce well-rounded and thinking graduates: individuals
who can apply general principles of critical reasoning both to solving
specific problems in specialized settings, and to considering and ameliorating
more general problems at the societal level: i.e., to becoming "responsible
citizens." This does not mean, of course, that the usefulness and importance
of the role of the university as a simple repository of knowledge is now
denied (or that we are no longer interested in "making money"!), just
that we are seeking approaches in which our institutional productivity
is defined in terms extending beyond the mere storage of knowledge.

This
re-orientation of mission is significant for the very same reason that
it is not useful to look to the volume of genetic diversity and biomass
alone for clues regarding the functional meaning of the "state of being"
we term biodiversity. Within the natural world, maximum primary productivity--and
thus the potential for doing biological work in both the short and long
term sense--happens when relatively undemanding environmental conditions
act upon a set of relatively flexible gene pools to produce adaptable
populations capable both of self-reinvention, and fitting into and contributing
to the structure of new community frameworks. This "fitting in" process
may or may not involve developing some truly new adaptive structure at
the genetic or morphological level, but it must in the long run enhance
the overall turnover properties of nutrients and other resources within
the ecosystem--or risk a slowdown of turnover that will ultimately affect
that very rate of "fitting in."

Perhaps
we can promote the same kind of object productivity in a higher education
setting by deliberately setting out to attract a maximally "diverse" student
body, and then letting it flourish within a "relatively unconfining" learning
environment. But it doesn't seem we can hope to move in this direction
before we manage to change our views on what it is that constitutes "diversity"
within student populations, and on this basis produce a model of student
body integration that lends itself to a practical selection mechanism
aiding the process. We move in this direction here by starting with the
diversity model.

In
earlier days most students were selected for admission to college primarily
as a straightforward function of perceived measures of their intelligence,
especially as indicated through course grades and standardized aptitude
test scores. A few were also accepted as a function of their possessing
"special skills" in athletics or the arts, or because of great wealth
or a family relation to alumni. In short, "internal qualities" factors
dominated consideration for admission, and the notion that an unusual
ethnic, economic or geographic experience might present an "external"
factor equal in importance to enhancing the college learning experience
was acknowledged only obliquely, if at all. This kind of unidimensional
thinking worked tolerably well for as long as eligible and actual student
populations remained relatively homogeneous--say, into the 1950s--but
at that point the lack of diversity became its own issue on college campuses.
Unfortunately, the "repository of knowledge" model of higher education
has been unable to successfully address this problem. Early coping efforts,
including many of those still in effect, concentrated on trying to set
things right by dwelling on remedial strategies focussing on "internal
qualities" factors, especially those associated with the biological quality
"race." But, we must acknowledge, the setting of quotas and the like,
through extreme applications of the affirmative action concept, itself
violates principles of equal opportunity. This is not the philosophical
route to assuring either maximum diversity or maximum productivity within
the campus setting.

Earlier
I suggested that the most productive biological settings matched an efficient
ecosystem-level resource turnover process to individual species populations
that are able to turn the resulting opportunities for "making a living"
into evolutionarily-successful adaptive strategies--and then to move on
to do the same thing elsewhere, under new circumstances. Such "biological
experience" ends up being codified genetically, but apart from the kinds
of biodiversity indicator measures discussed earlier, the results are
difficult to separate into their ecological and evolutionary influences.
Within human social systems, however, this is, at least in principle,
somewhat easier to do.

It
is not much of a stretch, it seems, to suggest that productivity of thought
and interchange at the higher education level is likely to be maximized,
in analog to the biological setting, through a healthy mix of student
backgrounds exhibiting qualities born both, and perhaps equally, of natural
abilities and varied experiences. While we may feel this to be implicit
in our general direction at present, perhaps it is time to make the effort
explicit. Doing so will make it easier to deal with a number of issues
that remain contentious within the old "bastion of knowledge" model. Let
us briefly consider one example.

Heretofore
race has proved a difficult challenge for those who wish to develop a
fair social integration model at the college admissions level. Whatever
level of responsibility we may feel for righting historical wrongs, many
cry foul when individuals from minority groups are given, or appear to
be given, preferential treatment in admissions decisions. In fact, it
is difficult to defend the idea that any particular individual
should be given preferential treatment merely because of some accident
of racial genetics. At the same time, however, it is just as difficult
to deny that the group experience of some minority population--especially
an oppressed one--should be considered as anything less than crucially
relevant to an institutional mission professing a central interest in
the education of "responsible citizens." Further, it is likely that those
who have most experienced such oppressions will be able to speak most
authentically of them: experience matters.

The
solution to this dilemma--at least with regard to admissions policies--is
simply to recognize only the external, experiential element in race as
a fit criterion for admission decisions. And, importantly, this element
must be recognized as but one of a number of such elements contributing
to overall student population diversity, and integrated accordingly. The
best way to illustrate this further is to present an actual example of
how such an integration model might be set up in practice.

Consider
first the following nine characteristics, intended (for the sake of argument,
at least) to identify important native and experiential qualities in a
candidate pertinent to maximizing diversity within an incoming student
population:

(1) Received an ACT or SAT
score in the top ten percent. A primarily internal factor.

(2) Graduated in the top ten
percent of his or her class. A primarily internal factor.

(3) Was captain of his or her
school's debating team, president of its student government group, or
inducted into the National Honor Society. A primarily internal factor.

(4) Achieved all-conference
or all-state recognition in any sport. A primarily internal factor.

(5) Resides more than one hundred
miles from campus, and not within the home state. A fairly obvious external
factor: geographical distance from source is very likely to reflect degrees
of difference in overall experience.

(6) Is a citizen of (or at
least resides in) another country. Another external factor.

(7) Is a member of a minority
race in this country. A primarily external factor; again, for reasons
of differing overall body of experience, and how this is central to creating
a learning environment producing "responsible citizens."

(8) Is a member of an economically
disadvantaged population in this country. A primarily external factor,
for the same reason.

(9) Is the child or grandchild
or otherwise a close relation to an alumnus. An internal factor, significant
in its potential for helping to strengthen community spirit through continuity
of involvement.

The
reader is perhaps anticipating that a simple, cumulating, point system
is about to be set out for consideration. This is not the case. The point
here is to promote a system that encourages the final cause of diversification
in general, not that merely selects particular individuals. This
can be accomplished as follows.

On
his or her application the prospective student will respond in the affirmative
or negative to the preceding nine factors (or whatever selective factors
are decided upon); "affirmative" is initially assigned a "1," and "negative,"
a "0." The data across all applicants are then totalled and proportionalized:
once the sum of ones down each column is totalled (for all candidates),
each "1" in each column for each candidate is divided through by this
total. If, for example, two hundred applicants scored in the top ten percent
on the SAT/ACT, each of their initial "1s" on that factor would be divided
by 200, producing an outcome "score" for each of those candidates of .005.
And so on for all nine factors. Finally, the nine outcome scores for each
applicant are simply summed across the table to generate a single summary
statistic that can be compared to those of the other applicants, and ranked.

By
creating such proportional values that sum to one for each of the nine
diversity factors, each factor ends up weighted equally with respect to
how it contributes to the attempt to shape the nature of the student body--without
individualizations. (Of course, according to purpose each factor could
secondarily have various weightings.) Different institutions may in fact
want to end up with different outcome profiles in this respect, but no
matter what that profile may be, the overall effect will be to promote
an increase of diversity within the student body. In the most elite schools,
the weighting factor for SAT/ACT scores will actually mean little, since
almost all applicants will pass this criterion, leaving each person's
outcome score on that factor a very small fractional value. There will
then be a subtle influence exerted on such institutions to increase, perhaps,
the number of their international students (where relatively fewer applicants
meet this criterion, a higher fractional value will contribute to each
total score). Meanwhile, less privileged institutions that experience
smaller application rates from students who have high test scores or grades
will end up in effect putting greater weight on applications from students
who do have them. In all cases, a proportional system of this type will
have the effect of producing an application acceptance pattern that will
tend to equalize the contribution of all sources of diversity to the intellectual
community, thereby enhancing the odds for high productivity, and meeting
their mission.

A
system of this type has a number of practical advantages. First, it makes
it easier, on a year to year basis, to target specific prospective populations
for greater recruitment efforts. Along the same lines, it offers a nearly
perfect mechanism for institutional assessment efforts, as the continuing
goal will be to balance the number of students scoring a "1" on each factor.
Neither would such a system need to interfere with other absolute standards
set for admission (for example, the achievement of some minimum GPA in
high school), or with decisions made on the basis of altogether special
talents (in sports or the fine arts, for example). It is, simply, a way
for rationally administering a ranked "first cut" (or, better yet, prioritizing
financial aid offers) that directly addresses the issue of increasing
student body diversity, and thus a forward-looking productivity.

The
particular nine factors I have identified above are set out here for purposes
of illustration only, as is this specific proportions-based scheme for
their integration. A more fully thought-out system might be set up in
the form of state or national standards, or even organized individually
to meet the perceived special needs of a particular institution. More
to the point is the general philosophy that we are in need of a system
of student population integration that recognizes that what I term "external,"
or "experiential," factors are as relevant to the evolution of diversity
on campus and in society as are the more commonly recognized "internal"
factors associated with grades or test scores or (incorrectly, I believe)
racial biology. Schools with differing absolute capabilities might on
this basis act similarly in their efforts to promote diversity, and thus
a kind of productivity viewed in terms of fully educated citizens, within
their education environment.

To
summarize: in the view set out, diversity is recognized as a condition
antecedent to a well-rounded productivity, a perspective that inherently
recognizes the functional roles of both internal and external
forces in effecting change. In the university environment it is not only
a student's IQ or race (both internal qualities, at least insofar as the
backing genetics go) that bears on productivity of thought and interchange
at the higher education level, but also his or her varying experiences.
The latter may also be regarded as ingredients crucial to the generation
of any institutional dialog that purports to train "responsible citizens."

Copyright 2007 by Charles H. Smith. All
rights reserved.
Materials from this site, whole or in part, may not be reposted or otherwise
reproduced for publication without the written consent of Charles H. Smith.